STYLISED SCULPTURES of fairy-tale characters, puppies, kittens, mothers and children are Lladro's trademark. There's no mistaking the brand  its figurines are delicate, detailed and elegant. The porcelain art perfectionists from Spain are launching the first of this year's special collection on May 15.

Apart from the girls, flowers and birds that form the lower-end of the collection, Lladro's Life Deco line will include a special edition based on Nature  air, water and forest. According to the Chinese, 2004 is the Year of the Monkey and Lladro is celebrating this with the sculpture of a lovable little white monkey peeling a banana. Graceful couples dance in the springtime, violinists play unheard melodies and fragile-looking clowns wait to perform. There are additions to existing collections, such as stationmasters and passengers to last year's Great Train line.

"Lladro is for people who have beautiful homes, who live life in a particular way. Most of our collectors and members are the elite," says Angelique O'Brien, Country Manager, Spa Agencies, the distributors of Lladro in India. Lladro introduces two lines every year and has at least 3,000 members in India who are part of Lladro's privilege club. They either own five or six high-end Lladro pieces (the range starts from Rs. 3,000 and goes all the way up to Rs. 2 lakhs) or have bought a limited edition piece. Limited edition pieces are like last year's Ganesha  only 2,000 pieces were made and the price was fixed at Rs. 69,000, but the figurine is now valued at Rs. 3 lakhs.

The new line also sees the launch of Lladro jewellery, the Talismania collection  porcelain pendants with a touch of silver or gold. As always, a special Eventis figurine will be unveiled later in the year, with the usual secrecy and high-profile on-sale-for-a-few-days-only tag. This year's Made-for-India special limited edition is a Radha-Krishna statuette, which will be on sale in September in time for Janmashtami.

The Lladro showroom is at Spago, Ispahani Center, Nungambakkam. The figurines are also available at Bhavani Corner, Maya Plaza, T. Nagar.